Connect file storage to a dedicated server

Last update: June 26 2025

The file storage and the dedicated server are always in different pools, so to connect the file storage to the dedicated server, you must configure private network connectivity at the L3 level through a global router.

For your information

Some configurations of Chipcore Line dedicated servers cannot be added to the global router network because they do not have a port to connect to the private network. The availability of the private network port can be checked in the control panel: click Products in the top menu and select Dedicated Servers → Servers → Server → Server page → Ports tab.

1. Create a global router.

2. Connect the network and subnet to the global router up to the VLAN of the dedicated server.

3. Connect the network and subnet for the file storage to the global router.

4. Assign an IP address to the dedicated server.

5. Write routes on the dedicated server.

6. Create file storage.

7. Mount the file storage to a dedicated server.

See an example of connecting file storage to a dedicated server.

The instructions describe connection examples for dedicated servers with Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS and Windows operating systems. Instructions for servers with VMware ESXi, Proxmox and FreeNAS operating systems — in the Selectel Selectel File Storage blog article.

Example of connecting file storage to a dedicated server⁠

For example, you want to connect file storage in the ru-2 pool to a dedicated server in the SPB-2 pool.

1. Create a global router.

2. Connect two private subnets to the global router — 192.168.0.0/29 with gateway 192.168.0.1 for the SPB-2 pool and 172.16.0.0/29 with gateway 172.16.0.1 for the ru-2 pool.

3. Assign an address from the 192.168.0.0/29 subnet to a dedicated server, such as 192.168.0.2.

4. Write a route on the dedicated server in the SPB-2 pool — to subnet 172.16.0.0/29 via gateway 192.168.0.1.

5. Create a file store on the 172.16.0.0/29. subnet.

6. Mount the file storage to a dedicated server.

1. Create a global router⁠

1. In the Control Panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Global Router.
2. Click Create router. Each account has a limit of five global routers.
3. Enter the name of the router.
4. Click Create.
5. If the router is created with the status ERROR or hangs in one of the statuses, create a ticket.

2. Connect the network and subnet to the router to the VLAN of the dedicated server⁠

You can connect a new network to the router or an existing network if it is not already connected to any of the account's global routers.

1. In the Control Panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Global Router.

2. Open the router page → Networks tab.

3. Click Create Network.

4. Enter the network name. This will only be used in the control panel.

5. Select a Servers and Hardware service.

6. Select a pool.

7. Select VLAN. If you want to create a network up to the internal segment (Q-in-Q), specify its tag, a number from 2 to 4094. If there is already a network up to the VLAN, be sure to specify the Q-in-Q segment of this VLAN.

8. Enter the subnet name. This will only be used in the control panel.

9. Enter the CIDR — IP address and private subnet mask. You can enter a new subnet or an existing private subnet of the server if it is not already added to any of the global routers in the account. The subnet must meet the conditions:

   • belong to the RFC 1918 private address range: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0/16;;
   • have a size of at least /29, as three addresses will be occupied by Selectel network equipment;
   • Do not overlap with other subnets added to this router: The IP addresses of each subnet on the router must not overlap with the IP addresses of other subnets on the router;
   • If the global router network will include a Managed Kubernetes cluster on cloud servers, the subnet must not overlap with the ranges 10.10.0.0/16, 10.96.0.0/12, 10.250.0.0/16 and 10.251.0.0/24. If the network will include a cluster on dedicated servers — with the ranges 10.10.0.0/16, 10.222.0.0/16, 10.250.0.0/16, 10.251.0.0/24 and 172.250.0.0/14. These subnets participate in the internal addressing of Managed Kubernetes, their use may cause conflicts in the global router network.

10. If you specified the Q-in-Q tag, make sure to configure Q-in-Q. When configuring, use the subnet you specified in step 9.

11. Enter the gateway IP or leave the first address from the subnet assigned by default. Do not assign this address to your devices to avoid disrupting the network.

12. Enter service IPs or leave the last addresses from the subnet assigned by default. Do not assign these addresses to your devices to avoid disrupting the network.

13. Click Create Network.

14. Optional: Check the network topology on the global router. In the control panel, from the top menu, click Products → Global Router → Router Page → Network Map.

3. Connect a network and subnet to the router for file storage⁠

You need to connect the network and subnet to the global router up to the project and cloud platform pool where the file storage will be created in the future.

You can connect a new network to the router or an existing network if it is not already connected to any of the account's global routers.

Connect a new network

1. In the Control Panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Global Router.

2. Open the router page → Networks tab.

3. Click Create Network.

4. Enter the network name. This will only be used in the control panel.

5. Select a Cloud Platform service.

6. Select the pool where the file storage will be created.

7. Select the project where the file storage will be created.

8. Enter the subnet name. This will only be used in the control panel.

9. Enter the CIDR — IP address and subnet mask. The subnet must meet the conditions:

   • belong to the RFC 1918 private address range: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0/16;;
   • have a size of at least /29, as three addresses will be occupied by Selectel network equipment;
   • Do not overlap with other subnets added to this router: The IP addresses of each subnet on the router must not overlap with the IP addresses of other subnets on the router;
   • If the global router network will include a Managed Kubernetes cluster on cloud servers, the subnet must not overlap with the ranges 10.10.0.0/16, 10.96.0.0/12, 10.250.0.0/16 and 10.251.0.0/24. If the network will include a cluster on dedicated servers — with the ranges 10.10.0.0/16, 10.222.0.0/16, 10.250.0.0/16, 10.251.0.0/24 and 172.250.0.0/14. These subnets participate in the internal addressing of Managed Kubernetes, their use may cause conflicts in the global router network.

10. Enter the gateway IP or leave the first address from the subnet assigned by default. Do not assign this address to your devices to avoid disrupting the network.

11. Enter service IPs or leave the last addresses from the subnet assigned by default. Do not assign these addresses to your devices to avoid disrupting the network.

12. Click Create Network.

13. Optional: Check the network topology on the global router. In the control panel, from the top menu, click Products → Global Router → Router Page → Network Map.

Connect existing network

1. Check that the network has not yet been added to any of the account's global routers. In the Control Panel, in the top menu, click Products → Cloud Servers → Network → Private Networks tab → check that there is no Global Router tag in the network card.

2. Verify that the subnet meets the conditions:

   • belongs to the RFC 1918 private address range: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0/16;;
   • is at least /29, as three addresses will be occupied by Selectel network equipment;
   • does not overlap with other subnets added to this router: the IP addresses of each subnet on the router must not overlap with the IP addresses of other subnets on the router;
   • If the global router network will include a Managed Kubernetes cluster on cloud servers, the subnet must not overlap with the ranges 10.10.0.0/16, 10.96.0.0/12, 10.250.0.0/16 and 10.251.0.0/24. If the network will include a cluster on dedicated servers — with the ranges 10.10.0.0/16, 10.222.0.0/16, 10.250.0.0/16, 10.251.0.0/24 and 172.250.0.0/14. These subnets participate in the internal addressing of Managed Kubernetes, their use may cause conflicts in the global router network.

3. In the Dashboard, on the top menu, click Products and select Cloud Servers.

4. Go to Network → Private Networks tab.

5. From the menu of the network, select Connect to Global Router.

6. Select the global router.

7. For each of the network subnets, enter the IP address that will be assigned to the router, or leave the first available address from the subnet assigned by default. Do not assign this address to your devices to avoid disrupting the network. The last two free subnet addresses will be reserved as service addresses.

8. Click Connect. Do not close the window until you see a message that the network is connected. After that, in the Control Panel:

   • The network will appear in the Selectel Global Router section of the router page of the router you connected it to. You can view it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → Global Router → Router page;
   • the network will have the Global Router tag. You can view it in the Control Panel: in the top menu, click Products → Cloud Servers → Cloud Server page → Network section → Network card.

4. Assign an IP address to the dedicated server⁠

Configure a local port on the dedicated server that is included in the global router network. On the port, assign an IP address from the subnet you connected to the global router for the dedicated server.

Ubuntu

1. Connect to the server via SSH or via KVM console.

2. Open the netplan utility configuration file with the vi text editor:

   vi /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml

3. Add or change values for the network interface settings of the private network:

       <eth_name>:
               addresses: [<ip_address>]

   Specify:

   • <eth_name> — the name of the network interface of the private network;
   • <ip_address> — private IP address of the server with subnet mask, e.g. 192.168.0.2/24.

4. Press ESC.

5. Exit the vi text editor with your changes saved:

   :wq

6. Apply the configuration:

   netplan apply

7. Optional: reboot the server.

8. Optional: assign a private IP address to the server in the control panel.

Debian

1. Connect to the server via SSH or via KVM console.

2. Open the network interfaces configuration file with the vi text editor:

   vi /etc/network/interfaces

3. Add or change values for the network interface settings of the private network:

   auto <eth_name>
   iface <eth_name> inet static
   address <ip_address>

   Specify:

   • <eth_name> -name of the network interface of the private network;
   • <ip_address> — private IP address of the server with subnet mask, e.g. 192.168.0.2/24;

4. Press ESC.

5. Exit the vi text editor with your changes saved:

   :wq

6. Restart the network:

   service networking restart

7. Optional: reboot the server.

8. Optional: assign a private IP address to the server in the control panel.

CentOS

1. Connect to the server via SSH or via KVM console.

2. Output information about the network interfaces:

   ip address

3. Create or open the private network interface configuration file with the vi text editor:

   vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-<eth_name>

   Specify <eth_name> is the name of the network interface of the private network.

4. Add or change the values of the network interface settings:

   NAME="<eth_name>"
   ONBOOT=yes
   BOOTPROTO=none
   IPADDR="<ip_address>"

   Specify:

   • <eth_name> -name of the network interface of the private network;
   • <ip_address> — private IP address of the server with subnet mask, e.g. 192.168.0.2/24;

5. Press ESC.

6. Exit the vi text editor with your changes saved:

   :wq

7. Restart the network:

   systemctl restart network

8. Optional: reboot the server.

9. Optional: assign a private IP address to the server in the control panel.

An example of changing network settings in CentOS in the blog article Configuring Networking in CentOS 7.

Windows

1. Connect to the server via RDP or via KVM console.

2. Open the Network and Sharing Center.

3. Open the network interface of the private network.

4. Click Properties.

5. From the list, select IPv4.

6. Click Properties.

7. Specify the network interface parameters:

   • IP-address — Private IP address of the server with subnet mask, e.g. 192.168.0.2;
   • Subnet mask — subnet mask.

8. Press OK.

9. Optional: assign a private IP address to the server in the control panel.

5. Specify a route on a dedicated server⁠

On the server, you need to write a static route to the subnet you connected to the global router for the file storage.

Ubuntu

1. Connect to the server.

2. Open the network configuration file:

   vi /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml

3. At the end of the data block of the desired network interface, add a route:

   routes:
     - to: <ip_address>/<mask>
       via: <gateway>

   Specify:

   • <ip_address>/<mask> — the subnet to which you want to route, with a mask, e.g. 192.168.0.0/28;
   • <gateway> — gateway for the current server subnet, which is specified on the global router.

4. If you need to prescribe multiple routes, add them sequentially in the same block, for example:

   routes:
   - to: 192.168.0.0/28
       via: 172.16.0.1
   - to: 192.168.1.0/28
       via: 172.16.0.1

5. Save the file.

6. Check the settings:

   sudo netplan try

7. Apply the changes:

   netplan apply

Debian

1. Connect to the server.

2. Open the network configuration file:

   vi  /etc/network/interfaces

3. At the end of the data block of the corresponding network interface, add the desired route:

   up route add -net <ip_address> netmask <mask> gw <gateway>
   down route del -net <ip_address> netmask <mask> gw <gateway>

   Specify:

   • <ip_address> — the subnet to which you want to route, e.g. 192.168.0.0;
   • <mask> — the subnet mask to which you want to route, e.g. 255.255.255.0;
   • <gateway> — gateway for the current server subnet, which is specified on the global router.

4. If you need to prescribe multiple routes, add them sequentially in the same block.

5. Save the file.

6. Restart the network:

   sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

CentOS

1. Connect to the server.

2. Create and complete a file to configure static routes:

   echo "<ip_address>/<mask> via <gateway>" >> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-<eth_name>

   Specify:

   • <ip_address>/<mask> — the subnet to which you want to route, with a mask, e.g. 192.168.1.0/28;
   • <gateway> — gateway for the current server subnet, which is specified on the global router;
   • <eth_name> — the name of the corresponding LAN interface.

   If you need to add multiple routes, specify them in one command. Specify each route on a new line, for example:

   echo "192.168.0.0/28 via 172.16.0.1
   192.168.1.0/28 via 172.16.0.1" >> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-eno2

3. Restart the network:

   systemctl restart network

Windows

1. Connect to the server via RDP or via KVM console.

2. Add the required routes one at a time:

   route -p ADD <ip_address> MASK <mask> <gateway> METRIC <x>

   Specify:

   • <ip_address> — the subnet to which you want to route, e.g. 192.168.0.0;
   • <mask> — mask of the subnet to which the route is to be routed, e.g. 255.255.255.0;
   • <gateway> — gateway for the current server subnet, which is specified on the global router;
   • <x> — parameter that defines the priority of the specified gateway, 1 being the highest priority.

6. Create file storage⁠

Control panel

1. In the Control Panel, on the top menu, click Products and select File Storage.

2. Click Create Storage.

3. Enter a name for the repository or leave the name that is automatically created.

4. Select the region and pool segment where the storage will be created.

   If you need to increase disk space with file storage, select a pool segment from the pool that hosts the cloud server or Managed Kubernetes cluster.

   If you plan to use storage to store backups, we recommend selecting a pool segment from a different availability zone or region to improve fault tolerance.

5. Fill in the blocks:

   • Subnetwork
   • Settings
   • Access rules

6. Check out the price of file storage.

7. Click Create.

Subnetwork⁠

1. Select the private subnet where the storage will be located. The type of subnet depends on what you want to connect the storage to:

   • cloud private subnet — the storage will be available to Managed Kubernetes cloud servers and clusters only in the pool you selected when creating the storage. You will only need to mount the storage to connect it;
   • global router subnet — the storage will be available for dedicated servers, as well as cloud servers and Managed Kubernetes clusters that are located in other pools. To connect the storage, you need to configure network connectivity between the server or cluster and the storage through the global router. See the Connect File Storage section for examples of how to configure network connectivity.

   Once the repository is created, the subnet cannot be changed.

2. Enter a private IP address for the vault or leave the first available address from the subnet assigned by default. Once the storage is created, the IP address cannot be changed.

Settings⁠

1. Select the type of file storage:

   • HDD Basic,
   • SSD Universal,
   • SSD Fast.

   Once created, the storage type cannot be changed.

2. Specify the storage size: from 50 GB to 50 TB. Once created, you can increase the file storage, but you cannot decrease it.

3. Select a protocol:

   • NFSv4 — for connecting storage to servers with Linux-based OS and other Unix systems;
   • CIFS SMBv3 — for connecting the storage to Windows servers.

   Once the repository is created, the protocol cannot be changed.

Access rules⁠

NFSv4

1. Configure the file storage access rules:

   • available to all — the storage will be available to any IP address of the private subnet in which it is created;
   • access restricted — the storage will be available only to specific IP addresses or private subnets. If you create a file storage without rules, access will be restricted to all IP addresses.

2. If you selected Restricted Access, click Add Rule.

3. Enter the IP address or CIDR of the private subnet, select the access level.

   After creating the repository, you can configure new access rules.

CIFS SMBv3

1. Configure the file storage access rules:

   • available to all — the storage will be available to any IP address of the private subnet in which it is created;
   • access restricted — the storage will be available only to specific IP addresses or private subnets. If you create a file storage without rules, access will be restricted to all IP addresses.

2. If you selected Restricted Access, click Add Rule.

3. Enter the IP address or CIDR of the private subnet.

   After creating the repository, you can configure new access rules.

OpenStack CLI

1. Open the OpenStack CLI.

2. Create a file storage network:

   openstack share network create \
     --name <share_network> \
     --neutron-net-id <net_uuid> \
     --neutron-subnet-id <subnet_uuid>

   Specify:

   • <share_network> — name of the file storage network;
   • <net_uuid> — ID of the private or public network to which the file storage will be connected. The list of networks can be viewed using the command openstack network list;
   • <subnet_uuid> — Subnet ID. The list of subnets can be viewed with the command openstack subnet list.

3. Create file storage:

   openstack share create <share_protocol> <share_size>\
     --name <share_name> \
     --share-network <share_network_id> \
     --share-type <share_type_name> 

   Specify:

   • <share_protocol> — NFSv4 or CIFS SMBv3 file storage connection protocol;
   • <share_size> — file storage size in GB;
   • <share_name> — name of the file storage;
   • <share_network_id> — The ID of the file storage network you created in step 2. You can view the list of file storage networks using the command openstack share network list;
   • <share_type_name> — file storage type. The list of types can be viewed with the command openstack share type list.

Terraform

Use the Create File Storage instructions in the Terraform documentation.

7. Mount the file storage to a dedicated server⁠

The mount process depends on the operating system on the server and the file storage protocol: NFSv4 or CIFS SMBv3.

NFSv4

Linux

1. Connect to a dedicated server.

2. Open the CLI.

3. Install the NFS protocol package:

   sudo apt install nfs-common

4. Create a folder to mount the repository:

   sudo mkdir -p /mnt/nfs

5. Mount the file storage:

   sudo mount -vt nfs "<filestorage_ip_address>:/shares/share-<mountpoint_uuid>" /mnt/nfs

   Specify:

   • <filestorage_ip_address> — IP address of the file storage. You can view it in control panel: in the top menu, click Products → File Storage → Storage page → tab Settings → field IP;
   • <mountpoint_uuuid> — The ID of the mountpoint. You can look in control panel: in the top menu, click Products → File Storage → Storage page → Block Connection → tab GNU/Linux.

Windows

To work with file storage from Windows, we recommend using file storage with CIFS protocol. If you need to connect storage with NFS protocol, install and use a client that supports NFSv4 protocol.

The file storage works only with an NFS client of NFSv4 version. By default, Windows supports NFS client versions NFSv2 and NFSv3. For more information about NFS versions, see the Microsoft NFS Documentation Overview article.

CIFS SMBv3

Linux

1. Connect to a dedicated server.

2. Install the CIFS protocol package:

   sudo apt install cifs-utils

3. Create a folder to mount the repository:

   sudo mkdir -p /mnt/cifs

4. Mount the file storage:

   sudo mount.cifs -o guest //<filestorage_ip_address>/share-<mountpoint_uuid> /mnt/cifs

   Specify:

   • <filestorage_ip_address> — IP address of the file storage. You can view it in control panel: in the top menu, click Products → File Storage → Storage page → tab Settings → field IP;
   • <mountpoint_uuuid> — The ID of the mountpoint. You can look in control panel: in the top menu, click Products → File Storage → Storage page → Block Connection → tab GNU/Linux.

Windows

1. Connect to a dedicated server.

2. Mount the file storage:

   net use X: \\\\<filestorage_ip_address>\share-<mountpoint_uuid>

   Specify:

   • <filestorage_ip_address> — IP address of the file storage. You can view it in control panel: in the top menu, click Products → File Storage → Storage page → tab Settings → field IP;
   • <mountpoint_uuuid> — The ID of the mountpoint. You can look in control panel: in the top menu, click Products → File Storage → Storage page → Block Connection → tab Windows.